Friday, 30 May 2014

One man's Terrorist is another man's Freedom fighter, so
they say. Someone who isn't well informed about the Boko Haram insurgency may
believe that Nigeria's Muslim community, especially those in the Northern part of the country, stand to benefit from the quests of this terrorist group. Truth be told, this
feeling is more widespread than many would readily own up to; it becomes
obvious when you consider the fact that many Nigerians from the Southern region
believe that it is best to let the Northerners go for the sake of peace.
However, this - like many assertions and decisions by Nigerians and the Nigerian
government - is false. Boko Haram as a terrorist group does not represent the
interest of any significant group of Nigerians. By "significant" I
mean in terms of ethnicity and religion which unfortunately are the two major
divides that exist in Nigeria. Yes, it stems from Islam, but it is just a sect
with penchant for violence...you may want to think of it as an Islamic form of
one of the very many Pentecostal churches that stem from Christendom and whose
General Overseer is the god the congregation see.

So who are they? In the mid-1990s, Mohammed Lawal formed a group of young
radical Muslims at the Alhaji Muhammadu Ndimi Mosque, Maiduguri. Led by
Mohammed Ali, a set of this group had adopted a Salafist ideology with the belief
that their city and Islamic community was adulterated and corrupt. This new
group believed it can bring back what it saw as the fundamental, earliest or
purest form of Islam; and as a result they decided to withdraw from society in what
is called hijra. This group moved to remote Kanama in Yobe State where they set
up a fissiparous community and practiced their idea of pure Islamism. They were
mainly a non-violent Salafist-Takfiri group as their focus was on rejecting the
"secular" or "adulterated" form of Islam; propagating their
own belief and trying to persuade other Muslims to practice their idea of
the purest form of Islam. In 2003, this group had a disagreement with the
aboriginal Kanama community over fishing rights. This disagreement eventually got
the Nigerian Police Force and Army involved and earned the group a reputation as
"Nigerian Taliban". After a full-blown confrontation that lasted
about a month, their settlement was raided; Mohammed Ali and most of the group
members were also killed. Those that survived were said to have gone back to
the Ndimi mosque in Maiduguri and re-integrated with their mother group which
was then led by Mohammed Yusuf after Mohammed Lawal left for further education.

In 2004 and following this re-integration, Mohammed Yusuf
moved his group to the Ibn Taimiyyah Masjid Mosque on a land donated by Baba
Fugu Mohammed, his Father in-law. From this mosque the group grew as they
propagated their Salafist ideology and Yusuf's disdain against western
education. They spread from Maiduguri to Bauchi, Niger and Yobe states. Like Mohammed
Ali's Kanama group, Yusuf run his group as a fissiparous state with a ruling
cabinet, its own religious police and a large farm. The group attracted the
poor and jobless Muslim youths in the Northern part of Nigeria and from neighbouring
Niger, Chad and Cameroon whom they fed, sheltered and offered stipends. Yusuf's
group was funded by international Salafist contacts in Saudi Arabia and by
donations from wealthy Muslims who claimed they were under obligation to donate
charitably in what is known as zakat. Perhaps with the knowledge of what this
kind of sect could amount to and the challenge it may pose to the State, top
Muslim Leaders and Clerics from other sects had warned the government about
them and nothing was done. Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmoud Adam, a popular Muslim cleric
started criticising them and was killed, allegedly on the orders of
Yusuf-this act was to seal the fate of the group as an outcast in the Nigerian
Muslim community and as a full blown Salafist-Takfiri group.

Again, like Mohammed Ali's group, Yusuf's group had a
confrontation with the Nigerian Police Force in July of 2009. This
confrontation began when some Police officers insisted that they put on their
helmets as they were travelling for a member's burial and it eventually led to
several attacks by the group against Police station and to the killing of
numerous Police officers. With their incessant attacks on the Nigerian Police
Force (NPF) in Maiduguri, Boko Haram gained notoriety. Nigerians are known to
dread the NPF due to their corrupt and wicked ways, and it was of little surprise
that Boko Haram took that place of the "commander of dread and power"
when they kept on challenging, killing and sacking members of the NPF even from
their barracks...after all, if a group of people can gain an upper hand over
the same Police force that is meant to protect the public, who then are the
public to challenge this group? It was this newly found "Power" that
further emboldened Boko Haram and got Yusuf to fearlessly threaten and
challenge the State and security forces in his widely spread sermons. He painted
a religious camouflage for this new battle and thus Boko Haram morphed from a
Salafist-Takfiris movement to a Salafist-Jihadist movement which supports
violence not just against the Muslim community who do not practice their idea
of the perfect Islam but against people of other faiths who do not believe in
Islam or who try to suppress Islam. And this justified - religiously and “Islamically”
- their attack on the Nigerian Security forces whom they believed was trying to suppress Islam by attacking them. Yusuf's sermons brought about a response from the
Bauchi and Borno governments who tried to roundup the members of his group.
This was less successful in Maiduguri, Borno's capital and Boko Haram's base
and therefore resulted to the group going on a 3-day killing spree: police
officers, Muslim and Christian civilians were not spared in what was to be
their first Salafist-jihadist act.

In a reprisal attack, and on the orders of the Late Umar Musa
Yar'adua, the Nigerian Security forces pounced on the members of this sect and
their sympathisers whom they executed outrightly and without trial; Yusuf was
killed amongst hundreds of others. Village heads and Clerics played their part
in pointing out Boko Haram members to the Nigerian Security Forces. A number of
them escaped death and were said to have sought refuge with other insurgent
groups in Mali, Algeria and Niger where they also received trainings...Abubakar
Shekau-their present leader - was one of those.

These extremists were to regroup and return barely a year
later in what seemed like a revenge and arms gathering mission against the NPF
whom they would usually attack, kill and steal their weapons. They also attacked
Clerics, Village heads and civilians who cooperated with the NPF in the 2009
raid against them.

Under Shekau, Boko Haram has no apparent base or membership
unlike it was under Yusuf who had a defined camp and identifiable membership.
It has taken the shape and structure of other internationally known Terrorist
groups who tend to remain invisible until they strike. They have struck
churches, mosques, villages, schools, relaxation spots, motor parks, police stations,
prisons, army barracks, government buildings etc. and are said to have claimed
thousands of lives. Boko Haram are also said to have kidnapped foreigners and
young girls, the latest being the likely kidnap of over 200 young school girls
from Chibok, Borno State. There are also rumours that with the promise of
peace, they had extorted funds from some Northern state governors.

Boko Haram had constantly attacked the Northern states and
killed many until Nigerians, especially those outside the conflict zones,
became desensitised to their activities and to the hundreds of lives they
regularly waste. The largely incompetent and unfortunate Nigeria Federal
Government was at one point trying to dialogue with them as they had proven too
hard a nut to crack; and this move boosted their ego and morale. Even before
the declaration of the State of Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, it
ceased to be newsworthy announcing that hundreds of Nigerians have been killed
by Boko Haram in a Northern state. At one point Nigerians reacted more easily
to news of mass killings or death in other countries than they did to such in
Nigeria. However, this was to change with the twin bomb attacks at Nyanya which
claimed close to 90 lives and injured many and the kidnap of over 200 Nigerian
school girls from Chibok in Borno State all within a month. These launched Boko
Haram back into the consciousness of the average Nigerian as that invisible and
invincible terrorist organisation.

Boko Haram in grey: What are they actually about?

The late Yusuf was known to be an adherent of Ibn Taymiyyah-
a 13th century scholar, whose views are held widely by Salafist-Takfiris and
Salafist-Jihadist. Taymiyyah held that Allah supports the withdrawal from and
violent attacks against a system in which the Muslim leadership/leaders were
oppressive, corrupt and malevolent. However, under Shekau, Boko Haram has become more
violent and ever morphing and unpredictable and their grievances largely
unknown, the group appears to be maniacal in intent but clinical in approach. One
stable or predictable characteristic of this group is their wanton use of
violence which is limited to the Northern part of Nigeria. When one considers
the lax security in Nigeria as a country, it becomes obvious that Boko Haram
not having struck the Southern part of Nigeria and some Northern states is a
matter of choice and not of chance or inability. But why have they not done so?
Could what we know and can predict about them help us ascertain what may be
hidden? Let’s go back to history once more.

Looking back to history, one is forced to wonder if Boko
Haram is on a sick mission trying to emulate Usman Dan Fodio, who carried out a
jihad between 1802 and 1812 - a jihad that is widely seen as normative by
Northern Nigerian Muslims. Usman, a Fulani, had established a religious
community in Degel which he hoped would be a model town in years to come...this
was also what Yusuf had in mind when he formed the community that has become
Boko Haram. Usman fled to Gudu after Yunfa -the ruler of Gobir and a former student
of his- revoked Degel's autonomy and turned against him. It was from Gudu and
in what was called the Fulani war that Usman waged a jihad against the then
high Muslim civilisation which was made up of a number of Sultanates/Emirates
around the Hausa land and the then Borno Empire which was made up of Kanuris
and other tribes in the Northern part of present day Cameroon and Chad. With
the exception of the Kebbi Emirate, Usman conquered all of Hausa land; he
merged the conquered dynasties into what was called the Sokoto Caliphate and which became a Hausa-Fulani land. He
was also unable to conquer the ill-fated Bornu Empire, as he was repelled by
Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi; this failure resulted in three Northern fiefs: Yakubu
Nabame’s Kebbi Emirate with a predominantly Hausa population; Usman's Sokoto
Caliphate with a predominantly Hausa-Fulani population and Al-Kanemi's Borno
Sultanate with a predominantly Kanuri population. I should add that through mutual understanding between the Kebbi Emirate and Sokoto Caliphate, the Kebbi Emirate was granted its right to exist as a dynasty; however, Al-Kanemi's Borno Sultanate remained at loggerheads with Sokoto Caliphate even after the failed takeover attempt.

The Kebbi Emirate, the Sokoto Caliphate and the Borno
Sultanate came under the control of the British in what became the Northern
Protectorate and which lasted between 1900 till 1914 when it was again merged
with the Southern Protectorate and Lagos colony in what is now called Nigeria.
In present day Nigeria, two of these historic Northern dynasties are still in
existence as ruled by a Sultan of Sokoto and a Shehu of Borno.

Back to the present times, Boko Haram is seemingly focused on the Sokoto Caliphate and
Borno Empire in present day Nigeria as virtually all the States under these
dynasties have had attacks attributed to them except Kwara and Benue
States as at the time of this divination. Kwara is predominantly Yoruba and
Benue is predominantly Idoma and Tiv. Strangely, Kebbi State of the Kebbi
Emirate – a purely Hausa land, which is bordered by Sokoto, Zamfara and Niger
States of the Sokoto Caliphate, has not suffered a single attack. Looking at
this, we can see that there seems to be a pattern to Boko Haram’s attacks and
we can boldly say that their focus is mainly on the Hausa-Fulani region of the Sokoto
Caliphate and the Kanuri region of the Borno Empire. Between these two regions,
the Kanuri land has suffered the most. But this seems strange.

When one considers the fact that the late Yusuf, the founder
of Boko Haram was Kanuri from Borno; that Shekau, the present leader is Kanuri
from Yobe state; that Senators Ali Ndume and Ahmed Khalifa Zanna- both Kanuris
from Borno State- have been embroiled in controversies as it concerns their
affiliation with Boko Haram; that Former Governor of Bornu State- Ali Sherrif-
and the present Governor-Kashim Shettima- have also had links with members of
Boko Haram...one is left to wonder why a Terrorist group which is headed by a
Kanuri and with links to prominent Kanuris still kills and maims in Kanuri land
and why they have attacked their own domain more than any other region.

Again, considering that Boko Haram has been suggested to be
against the government and yet till date has not claimed a single victim from Federal and State governments nor have they destroyed any of their properties; one wonders why
helpless civilians are the targets. The closest they have come to attacking the
government are their confrontations with the Nigerian Security forces which are
purely defensive or retaliatory. So, what really is going on?

Though they may sound silly, but let’s ask ourselves the
following questions:

Why the unprovoked attacks in poor and defenseless Kanuri hamlets and villages by a largely Kanuri-controlled Boko Haram?

Is it not likely that some elements from the Sokoto Caliphate has seen Boko Haram as a Borno Sultanate group trying to settle historic scores?

What if this Boko
Haram insurgency has morphed into a battle between a yet unknown Hausa-Fulani group targeting Kanuri land and Boko Haram, a Kanuri-led group targeting Hausa-Fulani land?

Is it not possible that whilst Boko Haram is responsible for the attacks outside Kanuri land, the unknown group is responsible for those against villages in Kanuri land?

What if this has become a battle of supremacy between two groups from these neighbouring tribes - the Hausa-Fulani and the Kanuri tribes?

Why does it seem that the Boko Haram members who were
apprehended and linked to Kanuri politicians are in one way or the other
responsible for attacks in Hausa-Fulani land?

Considering the vengeful nature of our brothers in the north
(please don't take this wrongly), what if Borno and Yobe attacks have become
reprisal attacks by the unknown sect as a result of attacks in Hausa-Fulani
land? This is very logical because it has almost become the norm that after an
attack in an Hausa-Fulani state, there is one in Borno or Yobe. Recently, after
the Nyanya bombings; a village was reportedly attacked in Borno and about 300
people were killed; again, following the bombing in Jos; another village was
attacked in Borno.

Does it not look out of place that Boko Haram keeps claiming attacks outside Kanuri land but has never claimed any of the numerous attacks in Kanuri hamlets and villages? I should point
out that though Boko Haram has not made it a habit to claim or refute attacks
attributed to them, they have indeed claimed some. Surprisingly, they have only
claimed an attack in Borno State: a Military Barracks. In Yobe state and after
the killing of about 46 students in a school dormitory, Shekaureleased a video supporting the attack; however, stating that his group does not attack women and children, he never claimed responsibility.

Armed robberies, political killings, ethnic/tribal killings,
grudge attacks, kidnappings...name them, have all been termed Boko Haram attacks by
the deceived public and by a lazy and incompetent Nigerian Police Force that lacks that
investigative ability or the common sense to treat every new criminal act as unconnected
to the previous until proven otherwise. For instance, in 2012, a church in Bauchi
had reportedly planted a botched bomb at a rival's premises. If they weren't
caught in the act and the bomb detonated, Boko Haram would have been to blame.

If what I suspect is really what is going on, it is now left
for us to figure out when these reprisal attacks started and not necessarily
why because there are several valid answers both historical and otherwise. If it is true, it does not necessarily mean
that Boko Haram as a group has lost sight of their initial goals, it only
uncovers a new dimension to their operations. If this is true, it also makes
stronger the case that prominent Nigerians from both sides are financing and
supporting these attacks and counter-attacks and they should be hunted down.

I do not want this to be treated as some sort of conspiracy
theory or fact without extensive investigation, but it should serve as an angle that should be considered in the bid to
understand these killings and to stop them. If this is investigated and it
turns out that I am wrong, at least an extra angle to solving this problem
would have been considered and proven invalid...this would decrease by one, the
number of several possible options yet to be considered, and hopefully one of
them would be the answer we all seek. Please share.

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About Me

I am Nnanyelugo Aham-Anyanwu; a budding Researcher and Activist.
I am an Advocate of justice and equity.
I am an Academic, a Writer and a Poet. I am a constructive critic of government policies and actions and would provide advice and suggestions where necessary. I am the Chief Priest and Mouthpiece of the Great 9ja's Oracle... most importantly; I am whatever I want to be by HIS grace.